aging in place

Comments on a blog post about a revitalizing neighborhood in Washington, D.C., claimed that older people often don’t care about having amenities such as shopping and health care within walking distance. They can live in the suburbs and have everything they need. Affordable housing in urban areas, one person argued, better serves younger people who work. But, as an author of the recently released AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI) What Is Livable? Report, I can tell you the opposite is true: …

When you walk into Linda Broadbent’s house in Charlottesville, you’re struck by the openness and airiness of this new home. It appears to be a comfortable place to live. What you don’t notice right away are the accommodations the builder made for her home to be certified as an EasyLiving Home, designed to accommodate people in all stages of life. Broadbent’s house is one of 36 in Charlottesville that make up Virginia’s first EasyLiving Home-certified community. It is a concept …

The Better Living Design Institute‘s new website – betterlivingdesign.org – launched this week as a resource for homeowners, designers, builders and remodelers looking to create age-friendly homes with appeal to residents of any age. The institute was founded in 2012 by Bill Owens, president of Owens Construction, a residential design-build firm based in central Ohio, and Richard Duncan, a planner who leads the RL Mace Universal Design Institute in North Carolina. Both partners have decades of experience ensuring the maximum usability of homes …

Single women are the second-largest group of homeowners after couples, and they purchase almost twice as many homes on a first-time and repeat basis than single men do, reports the National Association of Home Builders. More women than men live alone, and single women are more likely to own their homes than single men (56 percent compared to 47 percent). Recognizing that in 91 percent of home sales, women are the prime drivers of the transaction, more and more builders …

For millennia, the home provided a roof over our heads, a place to raise a family. Later on, pride of place set in and the home became our personal castle. And in recent decades, homeowners counted on rapidly appreciating housing values to help secure some measure of financial security and independence. Stay Informed: Sign up for the AARP Livable Communities Newsletter Over time, the home has served many purposes, and its function has evolved from simply providing shelter to so much more. …

What makes someone age 50+ want to stay in their community – or want to leave? For most, the answer is feeling safe and having good schools. Those are the two top answers from more than 4,500 people age 50+ surveyed for a just-released AARP Public Policy Institute (PPI) report on what older adults feel is important for what is termed a “livable community.” (I’m guessing that excellent schools are connected to higher property values and perceived as contributing to a quality …